Italy for the Gourmet Traveler

There’s the fun of actually going on vacation, but then there are all the attendant pleasures of PLANNING a vacation, which is what I’m doing now.

For those of you planning to go to Italy, I refer you to the above book, by Fred Plotkin, ITALY FOR THE GOURMET TRAVELER. It has all the things that are usually missing in a travel book. It’s all about the culture and the life and the cuisine of the various regions of Italy. It is much, MUCH more than a restaurant guide, though it’s an impeccable one that gets you out of the tourist dumps and into real places — real places that have great food and are usually less expensive than the tourist clip joints.

I’ve followed Plotkin’s advice for years. He has a book about the Friuli region (LA TERRA FORTUNATA), and so I went there for eight days. He has another book about Liguria, RECIPES FROM PARADISE, and I went there for nine days.

Anyway, if you’re thinking about Italy this year (despite the euro being at about $1.60), don’t go without Plotkin.